the arms with which a prince defends his state are either his own, or they are mercenaries, auxiliaries, or mixed. Mercenaries and auxiliaries are useless and dangerous; and if one holds his state based on these arms, he will stand neither firm nor safe; for they are disunited, ambitious and without discipline, unfaithful, valiant before friends, cowardly before enemies; they have neither the fear of God nor fidelity to men, and destruction is deferred only so long as the attack is; for in peace one is robbed by them, and in war by the enemy. The fact is, they have no other attraction or reason for keeping the field than a trifle of stipend, which is not sufficient to make them willing to die for you. They are ready enough to be your soldiers whilst you do not make war, but if war comes they take themselves off or run from the foe; which I should have little trouble to prove, for the ruin of Italy has been caused by nothing else than by resting all her hopes for many years on mercenaries, and although they formerly made some display and appeared valiant amongst themselves, yet when the foreigners came they showed what they were.”
Word slop
>>538503147Just a poor translation, that carries weight and truthThe mercenaries are abandoning their functions in the wake of the invaders, yet still they try to keep the impression by attacking the population.Its not stable, its the death sentence for the princes, the polity
>>538502674Literally made me laugh out loud, good thread
>>538503527If the point of no return wouldn't have been long overstepped it would really be the funniest joke ever. But the point was overstepped. The entire public employed staff consists of mercenaries, and there is no lane for the political parties, the discount princes to revert it — the only way forward is civil war
